24K Athena Suites

The view from the balcony and floor-to-ceiling windows is breathtaking, with 270° views of Athens from the west corner. The decor is minimal and stylish, with polished white marble floors that get slippery when wet and recessed mood lighting. The place is stunning, though there are some flaws. The central location is convenient for walking to bars, restaurants, tavernas, the Acropolis, and the Acropolis Museum. The neighborhood is crowded and touristy, though, and navigating the crowds with luggage can be difficult. We were fine with the stairs, and Christos met us at the door and carried all our luggage up. There is an elevator, but you have to climb to the first floor, what we Americans call the second floor, to reach it. If you book top-floor apartment number 51, there's another flight of stairs just inside the door. The proprietors can reach the elevator through the jewelry store on the ground floor. The apartment needs a lot of small repairs. The rain shower leaked a little at the joint, patched with an adhesive bandage, and you'd only notice if you tilted the shower head down to look. One window screen has a big hole, some curtain hooks are missing or unhooked, and damaged magnetic latches mean some kitchenette cupboards don't stay shut. A bedside lamp didn't work, probably because the bulb was burned out. The mini fridge was extremely small, though a bigger one would fit in the cabinet, and it needed defrosting. Most of these fixes would take about five minutes and wouldn't require even a day's vacancy. The king-size bed was very comfortable, but the sheets and mattress liner seemed too small for it, so the bedding came off and got disheveled overnight. I don't understand why they wouldn't just buy the right size. Service and amenities felt somewhere between an Airbnb and a major hotel chain. On the second day, someone brought clean towels and took out the trash but didn't make the bed. On the second day, they did. The kitchenette had a pot, a frying pan, and a few odd dishes and glasses, but no matching cups or glasses, and no basics like cooking oil or paper towels. It wouldn't take much effort to improve this and bring the stay more in line with the view and decor. There's a large hanging rack, but no drawers or cabinets for clothes, so there was nowhere to put socks, underwear, or other things when unpacking. Even with those irregularities, I very much recommend this place and would stay again. Maybe bring some nice glasses and paper towels.